22 GERMINATION.CA JULY 2019 towards the end of the detas- seling period, there may be a crisis in future,” he says. The Seed Corn Growers of Ontario therefore supports the recommendations of the Canadian Agriculture and Agri-Food Workforce Action Plan to ease regulations relating to foreign worker access — for example, inclusion of seed corn on the National Commodity List, which determines where foreign workers can be placed. If that can be accomplished, another recommendation is that (due to the immediacy of the work involved) the paperwork relating to each foreign worker should be processed before the workers arrive in Canada. “We are taking the proactive step to try and get on the Commodity List,” Nanni notes. “We expected seed corn to be on the list late last year, but we’re still waiting.” What BASF is Doing Big players like BASF are having good suc- cess in recruiting and retaining long-term seed industry employees, through offer- ing good wages and working conditions, offering their Professional Development Program (PDP) and more. Jon Sweat, vice- president of BASF Agricultural Solutions Canada, says his firm hires about 900 people in total across Canada related to seed production and sales, and that a significant percentage of those workers are hired for about eight months a year for seasonal seed processing. BASF continues to meet their hiring needs for that task through hiring local people, some being retirees from vari- ous industries. However, Sweat notes “the more rural you get, as with any industry, the harder it is to fill positions, from seed processing to salespeople who sell to seed distributors or growers.” In terms of recruiting geneticists, Sweat says like other firms, BASF recruits these from around the world. WANTTOWORKINSEED? A look at some innovative strategies now in play to recruit and retain talent in the sector. Treena Hein BY THE NUMBERS 57,420is the number of jobs that spin off the Canadian seed sector $1.67billion is the total annual amount paid out in wages as a result of the seed industry in Canada $81.9million is the total annual amount of tax revenue generated by the seed sector $5.61 billion is the total estimated annual economic impact of the seed sector in Canada Source: Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council SEED IS BIG business here in Canada, as it is around the world. The non-profit Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council (CAHRC) reports that the Canadian seed industry generates almost $82 million in tax revenue and has a total economic impact of over $5.6 billion. It also employs over 57,000 people — and needs to keep employing that same number or more, as skilled worker short- ages in all sectors of our economy con- tinue to grow. Seed industry jobs, states the CAHRC, run the gamut from research and innova- tion geneticists and breeding technicians in the lab, positions in the field involving research trials or crop advisement and seed growers, to positions involved in meticu- lous processing, as well as sales/market- ing. However, while it recognizes that the seed industry recruits and hires as many Canadians as it can, the CAHRC notes that “there are unique workforce challenges involved in seed growing and production.” These include the fact that locations where seed is grown and processed are mostly rural, and that many are seasonal. In addition, some jobs (hybrid cross-pol- lination for example) are highly technical. Loss of workers to retirement continues, as does the demand for workers in other sectors. Access to temporary foreign workers could be helpful in some serious seed industry labour situations, such as filling seed corn detasseling crews in southern Ontario to ensure pollination. A substan- tial number of workers are needed for this task over a very short amount of time. Seed Corn Growers of Ontario administra- tive manager Chris Nanni says detasseling has always been mostly done by teens, but that teenage workers are getting harder to find. “We haven’t reached a crisis yet, but if the numbers of youth who want to do the job keeps going down, particularly